Most Recent Episodes

March 20, 2019

March 20, 2019 • Since the 1980s, Cherríe Moraga has been a queer feminist Chicana icon, alongside thinkers like Audre Lorde and Gloria Anzaldúa. Her newest work is a memoir: "Native Country Of The Heart." It centers on her close relationship with her mother who died in 2005 after suffering for many years from Alzheimer's disease. Maria Hinojosa and Cherríe Moraga discuss the struggles of watching a parent grapple with losing their memory, how ideas about gender get passed down, and the future of feminism.

March 15, 2019

March 15, 2019 • At the only shelter for unaccompanied minors in Tijuana, Mexico, teens watch Pokemon and blast Bad Bunny songs. Most of these teens are from Central America, thousands of miles from their families, and waiting for months to apply for asylum in the U.S. As they wait, shelter administrators work to regulate their stress and trauma. But now, they're also worried about their safety outside the shelter's walls. Last December, two of the teens staying there were kidnapped and murdered. Jesse Alejandro Cottrell takes us inside the daily lives of these teenagers—as they wait for an uncertain future.

March 12, 2019

March 12, 2019 • Over the past two months, President Donald Trump has been demanding funds from Congress to build his proposed border wall—which led to the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. As Congress and the White House continue to clash over funding, Latino USA heads down to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to visit the communities affected by the decisions being made in Washington, D.C. We visit a chapel threatened by the possibility of the wall cutting across its property, a "dragtivist" protest, and volunteers helping asylum-seekers on both sides of the border.

March 8, 2019

March 8, 2019 • There's a long and extensive pattern of sexual abuse and harassment in immigration detention facilities, even though the Prison Rape Elimination Act was introduced in DHS facilities in 2014. Over a ten-month period, Latino USA partnered with Rewire.News and dug into one specific case of alleged sexual abuse, that of Laura Monterrosa at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center. What we learned after reviewing documents obtained through a FOIA request raised questions about the efficacy of internal investigations at immigration facilities and the safety of thousands of detained immigrants.

March 5, 2019

March 5, 2019 • Born and raised in Los Angeles, Patricio Manuel is the first openly transgender boxer to ever fight professionally in the U.S. Despite the name, Patricio is not latino, he identifies as black, but he was raised in the Mexican-dominated boxing gyms of L.A., where he earned his nickname "Cacahuate," or peanut. He is a five-time amateur boxing champion and while he is making history in the ring, he hasn't always been accepted in the boxing community. Latino USA sits down with Patricio "Cacahuate" Manuel to discuss his journey into the ring and how boxing helped him learn to love his own body.

March 1, 2019

March 1, 2019 • We follow the journey of one quinceañera, Hailey Alexis, from Whittier, California—as she plans for the big day. From searching for the perfect dress, to last-minute dance rehearsals during her party. We talk with family friends who are debating whether they will have a quinceañera for their daughter, and attend one of the biggest Quince Expos on the East Coast. Throughout the process, we explore how the quinceañera is seen as a status symbol, a form of female empowerment, a statement about Latinx identity and also a really fun party. This segment was originally broadcast on September 16th, 2016.

February 26, 2019

February 26, 2019 • Making Movies is a band based out of Kansas City, Missouri. The group has two sets of brothers, lead singer and guitarist Enrique and bassist Diego Chi, and Juan-Carlos and Andres Chaurand on percussion and drums. Their second album, "I Am Another You," fused electric guitars, with mambo rhythms, synths and operatic vocals—and explored identity and immigration. Latino USA sits down with Enrique and Juan-Carlos to discuss "Locura Colectiva," one of the band's most ambitious tracks.

February 22, 2019

February 22, 2019 • Four Latinx film critics: Claudia Puig, Vanessa Erazo, Monica Castillo, and Manuel Betancourt sat down with Latino USA to talk about what it means to be a film critic, what they see their role should be as Hollywood aims to embrace more diversity, and the politics of popular film rating system, Rotten Tomatoes.

February 20, 2019

February 20, 2019 • The film "Roma" has been groundbreaking in many ways—it's one of the rare foreign language films to be nominated for Best Picture and its star Yalitza Aparicio is the first indigenous, Latina woman to be nominated for Best Actress. But Roma, which was distributed by Netflix, is just the latest in a long legacy of Hollywood films which were made in Mexico. Former publicist Luis Reyes traces that history in his book "Made in Mexico: Hollywood South of the Border." Reyes goes all the way back to when Hollywood sent a camera to film Pancho Villa out on the battlefield during the Mexican Revolution and up until films like "Titanic" and "Shape of Water."

February 15, 2019

February 15, 2019 • In recent weeks, Venezuela has been in the spotlight as two men, Nicolás Maduro and Juan Guaidó, assert their claims to the presidency amidst political and economic crisis. Many are watching the situation with growing anxiety, including a Venezuelan father and son. José Eduardo González Vargas is a 28 year-old journalist living in Venezuela. His father, Ernesto Solo, is a filmmaker and art director who currently lives in New York City. He's also getting ready for a trip home to see his family. In this episode of Latino USA, father and son speak by phone about their memories, fears, and hopes for Venezuela.